What's new, what's happening, and what's to come in Tampa Bay public transportation.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

It's Mapnificent!

Want to see how far you can go from your location in a certain amount of time on HART? There's now an app for that!

HART released our General Transit Feed Specification (GTFS), or scheduling data, about a month ago and we now have the first "app" created using the data.

Mapnificent.

Mapnificent is a free web-based application that utilizes HART scheduling data (times, stops, frequencies, etc.) to formulate and display the results over Google Maps. You can drag the pin around for different locations, use the slider for different maximum times, and go to settings to choose times and days of week. You can also drag the pin around to find the half way meeting point between friends living across town.

Mapnificent was created by a 23-year-old graduate student named Stefan Wehrmeyer, a graduate student in Germany. "I hope people use it to find the best place to live, work and meet, said Wehrmeyer on his blog. "That they discover new things about their public transport system."

If you would like a more in depth look of the functionality of Mapnificent, please watch the video below. Wehrmeyer gives a great tutorial on using Mapnificent to accomplish a number of tasks.

Reminder: HART does not endorse any 3rd party applications, including Mapnificent . However, we do support providing our patrons with options, and having our data open for public consumption and ingenuity.

If you are interested in developing a 3rd party application, please visit the HART Developer's page located here.